OPERA fans can escape the winter chill with a magical, musical tale of the East, courtesy of Una Voce Opera Company.

The company is proud to present its Christmas production, Chu Chin Chow, one of the longest-running musicals in history.

Written by Oscar Asche with music composed by Frederic Norton in 1916, the show is based on the Arabian Nights Tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and includes musicalfavourites such as The Cobbler’s Song and Any Time’s Kissing-time.

Clare Hyams and Eunice Woof MBE will share the role of Mahbubah, while the visiting star of the show will be Jane Zoo, from Hong Kong, who will sing the role of Marjanah (originally made famous by Anna May Wong).

Jane, who was born in Beijing, completed her undergraduate training in 2005 at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

She has just finished postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, studying with Sandra Dugdale.

While at the college Jane played the role of the Hen in The Cunning Little Vixen.

In opera excerpts she performed the roles of Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Romilda in Serse, Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia and the title rôle in Lakmé.

Jane was in the premiere of Fei Jia Dong, a contemporary multimedia music theatre piece at the Arts Centre in Hong Kong.

She also appeared as an opera singer in Kubert Leung’s film Wonderful Times and sang the title song.

The talented star was a semi-finalist in the Stuart Burrows International Singing Competition in Wales, and was invited as a guest artist to sing in the London Week of Peace concert in Trafalgar Square.

She also sang in the Great Elm Vocal Awards finalist concert in the Wigmore Hall.